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The New McCarthyism: LGBTQ+ Purges In Government Begin (www.erininthemorning.com)

submitted 9 months ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/lgbtq_plus@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Really annoyed they’re downshifting to “McCarthyism”.

Yes it’s arguable, no it’s not as effective as “fascism”.

[–] dariusj18@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I would argue it is not McCarthyism. McCarthyism would he specifically using people's political ideologies as a metric, whereas sexuality is a personal private thing that would have absolutely no effect on the ability to do a job. At least McCarthyism has some way to claim that "commie" is actively working against the interests of the US.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

After the extremely damaging "Cambridge Five" spy scandal (Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross), suspected homosexuality was also a common cause for being targeted by McCarthyism. The hunt for "sexual perverts", who were presumed to be subversive by nature, resulted in over 5,000 federal workers being fired, and thousands were harassed and denied employment.[88][89] Many have termed this aspect of McCarthyism the "lavender scare".[90][91]

From the wiki on McCarthyism

[–] dariusj18@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Interesting. I had always understood McCarthyism as only the red scare, and I assumed it was how it was always used.

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